Wanted: way to save chimney

Several weeks ago, Rick Hurd and Jeff Mularski bought 4.4 acres of undeveloped property near Spokane’s Sunset Hill that includes a local landmark, the Hoyt greenhouse chimney.

Now the two are seeking ideas on how best to use the property.

Sitting just north of Interstate 90, the site has been for sale for more than 15 years. The 105-foot-tall chimney still has the word “Hoyt’s” painted on its side.

It was only in the past few months that the weathered “for sale” sign attached to the chimney came down.

The smokestack was used in the early 20th century to provide heat to a set of greenhouses operating there.

Hurd and Mularski, managers of a Pacific Mortgage Corp. brokerage in Spokane Valley, bought the parcel for about $100,000 from Harold Stack, a Seattle businessman who developed much of the nearby commercial property with Spokane partner Rocky Rothrock.

The two new owners say they want to find a use that preserves the chimney, which was built around 1916, according to newspaper records.

“We bought the property as an investment,” Mularski said. “Driving past the property for years we became curious about the possibilities of developing the property.”

Hurd said he he’d love to see someone build a “picturesque” single-family residence that would double as an artist’s studio or gallery. Visitors could park there, since blacktop from the greenhouses sits below the weeds, he said.

Though it’s near the Hampton Inn and the Farm Credit bank building, the chimney site is zoned multifamily residential, said Rothrock.

Area neighbors who’ve heard of the sale say they want to meet with the buyers in an effort to maintain their quiet, relaxed neighborhood feeling.

“What we don’t want are some condos or for them to build a gated community,” said Walter Miller, who lives down the road from the chimney. “This road couldn’t take that extra traffic.”

Miller added, “Not that we have anything to say about it.” Miller said he was speaking for himself, not his neighbors.

Hurd said he’d be glad to meet with the neighbors. “The neighbors don’t want to see 24 apartments there. And we don’t either,” he said.

The smokestack was built to heat the nursery that had been started there even earlier by two brothers, William S. Hoyt and the Rev. Frederick Hoyt. Some newspaper records say the first nursery on that site goes back to 1892.

By the 1930s, the Moncalvo family bought the greenhouses from the Hoyts, said one of the family’s descendents, Spokane resident Kathleen Moncalvo.

The greenhouses lasted until the Rothrock Co. purchased the property in 1983. The last buildings next to the chimney, said Moncalvo, were three large wholesale greenhouses.

“It’s a great spot, with utilities already there,” added Mularski. “We’re looking for ideas. We don’t have a definite plan in mind.”